• Self-referential looks to camera are NOT A BAD THING (all John Hughes films)

• Best friends are best when they're a bit troubled (Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Iona in Pretty In Pink)

• Teachers are self-serving Nazis (Mr Vernon in The Breakfast Club) or desperate, sadsack stalkers (Mr Rooney in Ferris Bueller's Day Off )

• Geeks give good kisses: The Geek in Sixteen Candles and Duckie in Pretty In Pink both give surprisingly good lippage. ("He must practise on melons," Iona says after Duckie unexpectedly plants one on her in Pretty In Pink)

• Sex is complicated. "If you say you haven't, you're a prude. If you say you have, you're a slut. It's a trap." (Ally Sheedy's Allison in The Breakfast Club)

• If you want a real career, don't be the main star of a Hughes flick. See: John Cusack as Best Nerd Friend in Sixteen Candles or a young Robert Downey Jr as Mean Spirited Jock in Weird Science.